Tales of One
by TanukiGirl22
Summary: Poetry is just another way to tell a story. Enclosed here are many poems, stories. Each tale may be different, but in the end, they come together to become the tales of one.
1. Thank You, Tomoe

**Disclaimer: I don't own RK, Kenshin, Kaoru, or Tomoe. Happy now?  
  
Thank You, Tomoe  
  
Thank you, Tomoe  
For giving him someone to turn to  
When the world's evil grew  
For being his sheath  
From the bloodlust that threatened to overcome him  
For keeping him safe  
From the demons of his reality  
So he could live a little while longer  
  
Now, it's my turn  
  
I will be his protection  
Against his haunting nightmares  
I will be his support  
When no one else can stand beside him  
I will comfort his pains  
When no one else would understand his pain  
Of course I'm a little jealous  
  
That you were his first love  
But I wouldn't have known how to help back then  
And so, I thank you, Tomoe  
  
For bringing him to me  
  
**A/N pls go easy on me, poems aren't exactly my specialty. Please review,  
no flames, and arigatou to everyone who read it 


	2. Blue Eyes

**Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin, or Aoshi, or Misao. It's all  
Watsuki-san's doing.  
Plain lines- Aoshi  
Lines with ~ in the beginning- Misao  
Blue Eyes  
~Those cool, ice blue eyes.  
Those bright, ocean blue eyes.  
~They always turn away.  
They always go my way.  
~I try to make them see  
I try to ignore  
~How much they really mean to me.  
My feelings for those eyes  
~But I can't.  
But I can't.  
~I'll just keep waiting  
I'll wait for another day.  
~For a smile to join those eyes.  
Another day, I'll smile for her.  
**A/N: So how was my first attempt at an A/M fic? I have a hard time  
writing about them, so don't be expecting much a/m stuff from me (but I  
will try later on, I promise) arigatou for reading, pls review! 


	3. An Excerpt from: Live Life

**Disclaimer: I do not, never have, and probably never will own Rurouni  
Kenshin  
*Note: you may want to read my fic "Live Life" to get a better  
understanding  
  
An Excerpt from: Live Life  
  
You have so much  
Yet you heart finds no piece  
You deprive yourself of joy  
Atonement seems to be  
The only answer  
When you can do more  
Let go of your pain, your guilt  
Live life  
  
**A/N: in case you didn't get it, it's Kaoru to Kenshin. I strongly suggest  
you read "Live Life" to better understand my purposes. Just to let you  
know, it's a freeform poem since rhyming didn't work out so well. Pls  
review 


	4. Which One?

**Disclaimer – Rurouni Kenshin doesn't belong to me at all (I'm so un-  
creative, I can't even come up with a good disclaimer!)  
  
Which one?  
  
I want to learn  
  
Strength – like Raijuta-sensei  
And the Shinko Ryuu  
I know I can be great  
With the sword he gave me  
  
Heart – like Kaoru-san  
In the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu  
Driven by the love of those I protect  
And a wooden sword, not to kill  
  
Raijuta-sensei said to me  
A wooden sword is for children  
And as he handed me his katana  
I became part of the Shinko Ryuu  
  
Kaoru-san shows me  
Strength of the heart  
Using a "child's" wooden sword  
Protecting life, to continue living  
  
Shinko Ryuu – the true sword  
I want strength  
But I feel so empty  
Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu – the sword that revitalizes  
True strength  
I feel truer, more whole  
  
Which one is right?  
  
**A/N: well, this has got to be the longest poem I've written (for fun). I  
will say that I considered making this rhyme, but it was so long, and I'm  
so lazy (bad me!), besides, I'm not good at rhyming, I'm better at freeform  
anyway. If you don't know, this is from Yutaro's POV.  
If you don't know who Yutaro is, he appeared in the Tokyo Arc. I  
personally named those episodes "The Hot Springs Episodes" because, if you  
know episodes from the inside out after seeing it only once (ok, I saw it  
three times, then recorded it, and now I lost track of how many times I  
watched it) it's when they go to Aizu (I think, they pronounce it  
EEzu)visit Genzai-sensei's little sister, and Kenshin (HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!)  
has his little hot spring moment (I won't say more, you have to watch it,  
but STUPID CN CUT OUT A CRUCIAL PART!). They meet Yutaro, the young master  
of a large amount of land. He wants desperately to learn swordsmanship to  
be strong (sound familiar?) and more like his father. They meet Raijuta,  
master of the Shinko Ryuu (style )and Yutaro trains under him using a  
[real] sword Raijuta gave him. After losing a match to Yahiko, he reveals  
{more like Kenshin says) that he never had a real lesson, and Kaoru begins  
training him in the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu. In the end, Yutaro loses the  
ability to use his right arm (I won't tell you how, you have to watch it  
for yourself) and he goes to Germany. Later, during the Filler/Christianity  
Arc (I can't remember the Japanese word) he comes back, but in the manga,  
he doesn't till the very end. I am such a bad person, spoiling the story,  
bad me, bad me! I won't say any more then.  
This was kind of inspired by the moment in the rain where he's training on  
his own, and he looks happy (not "happy," he looks like he's enjoying the  
training). I was planning to do a fic on that, but I'm not quite sure how  
or if I will yet. Oh, and Shinko Ryuu is [roughly] translated to "True way"  
or "True sword" (at least that's what it was when I looked it up) Hope you  
enjoyed is! Salamat to all of my supporters and for reading! 


	5. I Watched You Leave

**Disclaimer: no matter how much I want to see this episode WHICH I HAVENT  
YET i will never own Rurouni Kenhsin  
  
I Watched You Leave  
  
I watched as you left me  
All of me dreams shattered  
With one word  
  
The words chained me to the ground  
I closed my eyes in despair  
As you disappeared from my life  
  
The memory of your goodbye  
Cut me deeper than any sword could  
My heart was broken  
  
I cried for you, for us  
For the happiness you brought me  
For the sorrow brought by one word  
  
I cried as I watched you leave  
  
**A/N: I thought up this and "I Want to Learn" one night when I couldn't  
sleep and listening to the radio wouldn't help. I think you know the scene  
I wrote about, one I call "Departure." I really wanted to wait until I saw  
the actual episode before writing stuff like this, but I couldn't wait, and  
after seeing the flashbacks so many times (both in anime and OVA [once]),  
and after reading the manga translations, I know it as well as I could  
without actually seeing it. I really hope I didn't trash the scene, I  
forgot to record it and so I never saw it, I have to wait till May 29 (if  
I'm not mistaken) to see it again on CN. Hope you enjoyed it! Salamat for  
reading! 


	6. Untitled Poem

Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin doesn't belong to me, and my complements go  
to to Watsuki, for without his ingenious creativity, the tale which he  
wrought would not exist and without that tale, you will be reading the  
thoughts of a writer who is nothing but an empty shell (I'm getting way too  
poetic for my own good)  
  
It hurts my head  
Plays with my mind  
Each little habit that keeps him true  
I get angry  
Though I don't know why  
He fills up every corner of my heart  
He doesn't realize the real reason  
The reason I keep him on his toes  
He doesn't understand why  
I always take out my anger on him  
I don't dare to say  
How I really feel  
How much I love him  
  
My Kenshin  
  
A/N: this is actually another one of those moments where I'm dealing with  
my problems through my writing, so please be gentle with reviews. I'm just  
calming my mind, but CONSTRUCTIVE CRITISCISM would be great. Er... I know  
that it really doesn't make that much sense, but this is based on everyday  
like, obviously from Kaoru's POV talking about how, even though she seems  
to get mad at Kenshin for no good reason, she still loves him, but can't  
find it in her heart to tell him. Sorry to say but I can't find a title, if I  
come up with a good one or someone gives me a good title, I'll update it.  
Next prejects: The Traitor and of course, the taiora which I will not name  
the title of. Mahalo plenty for reading! 


	7. The Key

Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin was created by Nobuhiro Watsuki and is owned  
by Jump Comics, Sony, etc. (wow, I'm so lazy I can't even come up with a  
good, amusing disclaimer)  
  
_The Key_  
  
My heart  
This emptiness  
Where do my emotions lay?  
  
My joys, my fears  
Anger and sorrow  
Have I lost them?  
Do I truly feel?  
  
What can unlock  
The door to my heart  
The window to my soul?  
  
A/N: this was actually written in 5 min. for my profile on AIM (kyrv03) to sort of describe myself, but looking back, I realized this also fit soujirou's POV, so I decided to post is as a sou POV poem. i haven't had any experience w/sou before, so I'm not totally sure if I kept this in  
character. I know the title may not be that relevant, but when I figured out this fit soujirou (about 5 sec after I wrote it) I realized I didn't have a title, and I don't want it to be like my untitled poem. that's when it hit me: the key referred to in the last stanza. My personal style of poetry has been changing a bit after reflecting on a review I got for Thank You, Tomoe (a review by the sacred knight) if you noticed it in this and the previous untitled poem. I think my ranting and raving should end now, so I will say: salamat for reading! 


	8. Ballad of the Rurouni

Me: I wanna have it, I wanna have it!  
Sano, well, you'll have to jump for it (holds papers with rights to own Rurouni Kenshin above my head)  
Me: Hey!!! Wait a minute... you're 5'10", I'm 5'5", so if I jump, I could... yeah...  
Sano: Huh? (gets a VERY hard punch)  
Me: (grabs paper) Mwahaha! I have the right to own of Rurouni Kenshin now! (looks at paper) Daiko, Tofu, Soy sauce... all written in kanji? (since when could I read kanji?)  
Kenshin: Oro... where's the grocery list go?  
Me: Ugh... ok, Rurouni Kenshin never has been or never will be mine. (to Sano) YOU TRICKED ME YOU BAFFON! NOW YOU WILL PAY!!! (reenacts Suzume's favorite thing to do [see TGGAAQ])  
Kaoru: That was a long disclaimer.  
Me: Oh, one more thing: JINCHUU ARC SPOILERS (maybe) YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

_Ballad of the Rurouni_

There once was a boy whose life was glad  
His mother and father were all he had  
Life was peaceful, his heart he gave  
Until the village was hit by the plague

One by one they dropped like flies  
Death could be seen in their wide open eyes  
Suddenly the boy was alone  
Had no family, had no home

Slavery was the next destination  
The boy's only company was his imagination  
Until the day the good ladies came  
Kasumi, Sakura, and Akane

In the night the bandits attacked  
He wants to defend; ladies held him back  
"You must stay alive," they whispered to him  
As the light in their eyes gradually grew dim

A swordsman, cape on his shoulders did lie  
"You need not know my name; you'll soon die."  
Those were the words he said just before  
He slew them with ease, just as he swore

The boy made graves the very next day  
For the bandits and ladies whose bodies did lay  
The swordsman decided to take him in  
Not before changing his name to Kenshin

Years passed until their fight  
"I have to wield my sword for what's right!"  
The boy, young man now, fought in the war  
"The boy is foolish," his master had sworn

The first scar was by Kiyosato's hand  
On his left cheek the sword did land  
Battousai slew him without a word  
Tenchuu was given yet no screams were heard

The boy, now young man, met the woman in white  
When she witnessed him kill in the night  
Slowly she became his first love  
Cold but beautiful as a dove

He asked her to marry him one day  
Her reply was, "Yes, I'd like it that way."  
Living in peace in the middle of war  
The couple, together, their vows they did swore

Until the day another boy came by  
Came to the woman with truth and lies  
The boy told his sister, "Let's leave!"  
But to his words the woman paid no heed

He fell in love for one she had hate  
Yet she fell in a trap, it was much too late  
Through the Forest of Barriers went the boy, now young man  
He fought for his life with no real plan

His goal was to save the woman in white  
For that he was willing to give his life  
He used his last strength for the final blow  
What he hit he at first didn't know

She smiled and cut his last scar  
On his cheek the wound did mar  
"You must stay alive," she whispered to him  
Just like the ladies; the memories never dim

He had her buried with an unmarked grave  
His heart much too heavy for the tears he gave  
One last time he made a vow  
"I will never kill again, once the war allows."

As battles were won and victory sure  
He disappeared after much endured  
A decade of wandering, new lessons learned  
Yet peace would be the last thing he earned

To Tokyo wandered the boy, now a man  
A day before the moon began to wan  
In the street she stopped him, her purpose was right  
Here eyes like sapphires in the light

And a new day begins, a new face in his mind  
Maybe he'll finally leave his past behind  
So now will the journey end or begin?  
In the battle of his heart, can he ever win?

Will his wounds heal or continue to bleed?  
Can he ever find the peace he needs?  
How will the plot of his life bend?  
Who knows? But for now, this ballad will end

A/N: gack! I can't believe how long this is! This is by far the longest poem in this collection so far. I actually thought this one up the night before, but as I went through, I lost what I had already done. It was perfect, too (I need a laptop!) so I had to try to recreate it. This isn't exactly what it was supposed to be, but I hope this will suffice. Salamat for reading!


	9. A Thousand Words

Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenhsin ain't mine, get it through your thick skulls!  
Note: This refers to eps 22 (Danger on a Runaway Locamotive)

_A Thousand Words_

"A picture's worth a thousand words,"  
Is how the saying goes  
Imagine the words they'd say  
The four people who knows

Kaoru would have a lot to say  
She sat in the middle, of course  
The smile on her face was at the memory  
Of Kenshin riding a horse!

Yahiko stood at her side  
He'd run his mouth off, too  
Even when that little adventure  
Came out of the blue

Behind them stood Kenshin  
Ruoruni smile on his face  
He wouldn't say too much himself  
But agree they had fun at that place

Slightly off was Sanosuke  
His face held pure fear  
Soul-sucking cameras and ghost trains  
He had no wish to be here

Together, the picture was alright  
Maybe it could have been better  
Through their journeys their family holds strong  
Swordsman, student, teacher, and debtor

A/N: i know, i know, this poem's not 1000 words but who cares? I don't think I have any poems that are this comical, so I hope you like it. It would have been much more melancholy (ooh, alliteration!) when I was thinking of it on my vacation, but then when I got home, I came up  
with the horse line and it just went from there. Hope you like it, mahalo plenty for reading!


	10. Death in the Eyes of a Boy

Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin isn't mine, which means Samurai X: The Motion  
Picture isn't mine, which means if you sue me, you won't get a dime, which  
means stop bugging me about it!  
Note: SAMURAI X: THE MOTION PICTURE SPOILERS HERE!  
Ye have been warned

_Death in the Eyes of a Boy_

The ground was littered bodies  
The boy did not care  
The only body he was looking for  
He hoped wasn't there

He walked amongst the remains  
His feet on dirt and blood  
As he stepped through the corpses  
The two mixed into mud

His eyes darted to and fro  
In hopes he wouldn't find  
The friend he had who shared his pain  
Their good times flashed through his mind

Some of the faces he recognized  
In the time he was there to see  
All young men, hardly past boys  
Barely older than he

Forgetting to watch his step  
He stumbled and nearly fell  
Looking at what he tripped over  
His eyes began to swell

The sight he least wanted to see  
Was there before his eyes  
In his mind he began to ask  
A long string of why's

Why was he there in the first place?  
Why did he have to die?  
Why couldn't he just live on?  
Why him, and not I?

Kneeling before his fallen friend  
He tried to wake him up  
Hoping that it was just a nightmare  
That he would soon get up

Alas! the nightmare was real  
And tearfully he fell  
Upon the back of this fallen friend  
He wished all was well

The young man who knew the pain  
When you father fell in war  
The boy wept for another  
Harsh memory he bore

Was this the fate for the two  
For one to pass away  
And the other to survive the sadness  
For many many more days?

A/N: eh... the ending wasn't too good, but I was out of ideas. This was  
based on, of course, the RK movie, from yahiko's POV at the moment where he  
found his new friend dead. This was a bit angsty considering the other  
stuff I normally write... but I enjoy making things rhyme :) hope you like  
it, salamat for reading!


	11. Tears of Blood

Disclaimer: IT'S NOT MINE!!!  
Note: Samurai X: The Motion Picture spoilers here, beware.

_Tears of Blood_

I rushed up to him  
Tried to stop him  
He wasn't thinking straight  
His fight was destroying them both

He held still for a moment  
Staring at Kenshin-san  
With a far off look in his eyes  
He was remembering something  
Form long ago

He began to cry  
Tears of blood  
Realizing his wrongs  
He fell on me and I held him close  
The one who always took care of me

The boys in his army began to gather around us  
Hoping it was not too late  
To save their leader

But a new sound was heard  
The sound of guns held ready  
Bullets flew straight at us  
Mercilessly killing  
And that's when he took action

He grabbed me  
Shielded me from death  
Meeting his own in exchange  
Falling into my lap  
He looked up at me  
His eyes growing dull

I cried for him  
For the loss in my heart  
And my tears mixed with his  
His tears of blood

A/N: not my best work... I guess I'm not really into it today. Um, this was  
from toki's POV in case you didn't know. To tell you the truth, I didn't  
really like the movie as much as I had thought I would have, I just doesn't  
do justice to the movie. For instance, the voice actors are the ones from  
the OVAs (except sano who had this freakish aussie accent that bugged me  
through the whole movie) but the drawings are like the TV series. And  
thinking about Jinchuu, it throws it off, because at the end of the manga,  
it's been 6 months, but the movie takes place 1 year after the start of the  
series, and there are so many flaws that relate to the series that it just  
bugs me. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the poem, arigatou for reading!


	12. Guilty Minds

Disclaimer: Not, never has been, never will be mine.

_Guilty Minds_

His strong façade momentarily shed

His trembling seen in his hair of red

Clenching his fist, the shaking ceased

Yet from his prison he was not yet released

He sat on the porch, brooding once more

She saw him as she walked through the door

Knowing all too well what ere his thoughts

How he caused so many lives to be lost

With a slow step she went to him

Interrupting his thoughts, so grim

Laughter her hand on his shoulder, she spoke,

"I won't sit here to make a joke.

"I know the guilt that you posses,

I know that it will never grow less.

The opium I made has taken lives;

I saw that anger in Sano's eyes.

"But know, Ken-san, that we are here.

Let us help you lessen your fears."

Before more was said, the gate had unlocked

And into the dojo, another did walk

With a shout of 'tadima' and gasp of surprise

"Megumi, you're here!" she did cry

A last whisper the sensei gave

"Go to her, or stay stuck in your cave."

A/N: yes, it is megumi! This takes place after Jinchuu, before Kenshin Kaden (or after... there's the possibility of that) Inspiration... can't quite place it, but kinda got the idea after reading a couple of IY fic (chapters) with inu/sango interaction (not romantically) and I haven't read nor written any ken/meg stuff and I wanted to try a meg thing. Originally, this would have been longer with ranting and raving of kaoru's pregnancy/checking on kenji but that would have ruined the point of this poem. Hope you liked it, arigatou for reading!

PS: still kinda on writing hiatus... poetry will be the furthest i get in terms of writing. if you want more, go to my fictionpress account on my profile


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